Scottish Friendly Assurance Society Limited is one of the larger UK Friendly Societies and has a broad portfolio including insurance, pensions and investment products, offered and serviced both directly and through the IFA channel.
SFA is competing in the wider, over-subscribed insurance market where potential customers are selecting product providers on the basis of investment return and service quality. While the friendly society tax-free position provides a powerful marketing position, the SFA executive team has no desire to maintain status quo and looks for all opportunities to secure increasingly good returns for Scottish Friendly policyholders.
With some systems less than 10 years old, SFA provided efficiency with 8,500 policies managed per customer service officer. However there were some significant drivers to look for alternative solutions, not least increasing market and regulatory pressures on costs. In addition, demands from Scottish Friendly’s success in marketing and acquisition included product and process specialisation, as well as the strains of growing beyond the current floor space.
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